Environmental Exposures Facing Public Entities

Some common environmental exposures faced by public entities include:

• Wastewater Treatment Plants/Pumping Stations present exposures from nuisance odor claims, raw sewage rupture, chlorine gas emissions, and historic site conditions, including
  • Old in-ground features:
    • surface impoundment
    • lagoons
    • clarifiers
    • unknown, old landfills
  • Sewer lines:
    • rupture of raw sewage lines
    • flood
    • discharge to surface water
• Maintenance Garage Services:
  • Aboveground tanks
  • Parts washer solvents
  • Petroleum waste products
  • Vehicle storage
• Parks, lakes, rivers and open land:
  • Midnight dumping
  • Discharge of raw sewage/industrial waste
  • Asphalt paving projects with storm discharge to open waters
  • Unknown subsurface conditions
• Landfills:
  • Unknown locations within municipality
  • Rupture of leachate lines and groundwater contamination
  • Leachate runoff into open waters
  • Uncontrolled stormwater
  • Nuisance odor
• Incinerators:
  • Airborne particulates
  • Heavy metals: airborne and in residual ash
  • Airborne volatile organic compounds (VOCs)
• Aboveground/underground storage tanks which present several exposures:
  • Leaks from tank bottoms
  • Ruptures during a catastrophic release
  • Spills during loading/unloading process
• Abandoned industrial sites

This list is intended only to outline some typical pollution exposures common to public entities and is not all-encompassing.